Friday, February 13, 2009

My sweet husband is taking me on a trip (today and tomorrow). It should be a fun 'getaway' ---and I'm so excited!!!! We will have a few meals at some of our favorite restaurants, spend the night in our favorite motel (the Holiday Inn Express), and, best of all, we'll get to see some new waterfalls. As you probably know by now (since I mention it frequently--ha ha), we have seen 295 different waterfalls since 2001, when we began our collection. We are hoping to get to 300 sometime this spring---so a few more new ones will be special for us. SO----to us, there's no better way to spend Valentine's Day than searching out new waterfalls.

When thinking about Valentine's Day and LOVE, I must admit that I didn't really know what REAL love and RELATIONSHIP was until I met George. Yes, I thought I was 'in love' with my first husband--but it was just different. We were more friends than lovers. We didn't communicate about our deepest feelings. Our relationship just faded away--and we didn't do a darn thing about it when we could have (maybe), before the love and respect was totally gone.

I think now, from what I've been through, that I have had enough experience to say that LOVE and RELATIONSHIPS take constant work. Here are the ingredients that I think every relationship needs: keeping God at the center of your lives, having similar values, respect and self-respect, appreciation, listening to each other (what do you want or need?), communicating constantly, taking quality time together, agreement with the rules when raising children, intimacy and a passion for each other (very important), friendship, trust, honesty, support, understanding, patience, equality (50/50 or 100/100), freedom (time apart/time together), and forgiveness. I'm sure you could add to this list.

Now can you see why building and growing relationships is HARD WORK. And most of us don't work at all of these ingredients especially as we work to make ends meet and as we raise our families. It may be easier if you are 'my' age --and some of the pressures of life are OFF. But then there are other pressures such as health issues, aging parents, etc. Therefore, we ALL need to keep these ingredients in front of us all through our lives. How is your relationship with your spouse and/or your loved ones??? There's no better time than Valentine's Day to do a check-list!!!!

We hope all of you have a wonderful Valentines Day and weekend. Be sure and tell those you love just exactly what they mean to you. Sometimes we don't say "I Love You" enough!!! As I said, we'll be away from the computer until Sunday. BUT--hopefully, when we return, we'll have lots of new photos to share with you.Hugs and Happy Valentine's Day to YOU,